A common problem encountered within residential and commercial establishments is the presence of crawling insects. While various measures are, of course, often implemented in order to prevent the occurrence of such a problem, insects, nevertheless, appear periodically. As is readily appreciated, such pests are unsightly, annoying, and generally undesirable.
The most common manner of dealing with the aforenoted problem involves the application of insecticidal poisons to those areas of an establishment normally inhabited by the insects, or more particularly, those areas within which the insects have been observed. This procedure must be performed periodically in order to maintain the premises substantially free of pests, however, such a procedure is necessarily quite time-consuming and expensive. In addition, the insecticidal poisons also present a certain degree of danger to humans, particularly children, and this use has therefore been restricted in restaurants, food processing establishments, institutions, nursing homes, and the like.
An alternative manner of controlling the presence of crawling pests in a given establishment involves the utilization of electrified devices or insect traps which electrocute the insects upon contact therewith. While such devices obviously rectify the time-consumption and expense disadvantages of the aforenoted insecticide application method of pest control, the devices are potentially dangerous to humans. More particularly, the electrified charges generated by the devices may not be lethal to humans, but the charges are normally sufficiently potent to seriously shock human beings. This often occurs, for example, when one of the inhabitants or proprietors of a residential or commercial establishment seeks to remove the insect carcasses from the trap.
One means which has been proposed for dealing with the foregoing problem of potential shocks to humans is to install switch mechanisms at various locations within the trap assembly or system. Such switches may obviously be utilized to disconnect the power source from the trap, or to interrupt the connections along the electrical circuitry. The provision of switch devices, however, is quite expensive, and the manual operation of the same within all areas of the trap system tends to become bothersome. A need therefore exists for a device which will automatically terminate the electrical power to the trap when, for example, it is desired to clean the same, such that the electrical shock potential is effectively nullified.